Vehicles, such as automobiles, are assembled by aligning and fastening numerous components and subassemblies to one another. One region of the automobile requiring assembly of such components and subassemblies is a front end region. This portion of the vehicle is frequently assembled as an assembly or subassembly referred to as a “front clip.” The front clip is commonly defined as the assembly comprising the portion of the vehicle extending from the A-pillar (the roof support pillar associated with the front windscreen) to the most forwardly disposed component, typically a front bumper. The front clip includes a structural frame, as well as a variety of vehicle components that collectively form the vehicle body.
Several efforts to directly or indirectly mount and/or fix the vehicle body components to each other, as well as to the vehicle frame, have relied on welded support structures or frames and machined body mounting locations for the body components. Approaches relying on such body mounting locations have undesirably led to large variations in alignment and fastening of components to each other. These large variations may influence the aesthetic appearance of the automobile to a user by providing nonuniform or undesirably large or small gaps and spacings between components and may be the cause of functional deficiencies, such as undesirable large opening/closing efforts, alignment and mutilation of components due to misalignment and interference, and non-uniform gaps and spacings, which each may affect consumer satisfaction.
One area of concern in the front clip has been the hood latch, and more particularly, in setting the front end sheet metal off the floating structure of a full size truck there needs to be a way to set the primary hood latch in an optimal position so there is no lateral force on the hood latch striker that would increase opening and closing efforts. Typically the position of the hood is set using a temporary fixture that enables the trend build for position, which is an empirical estimate of best fit of the fixture based on prior build experience taking into consideration tolerance stack-ups and other factors. While this is an effective method of setting the hood latch it requires use of a temporary fixture with each vehicle built and does not provide a built-in vehicle fixture for individual and repeatable setting of the primary hood latch in the optimal position while the hood is closed and parallel to the fenders on each side.
Accordingly, it is desirable to avoid the use of a temporary fixture and to provide a built-in device to establish the optimal position of the hood latch relative to the striker in order to provide a desired combination of the proper function of the latch and an aesthetic appearance of the front hood in the front clip.